Pure and Applied Chemistry

Abstract: The number of patients suffering from diabetes mellitus (DM) is increasing year by year throughout the world. In 2003, the world population was 6.3 billion, and the number of patients with DM in the adult population (20-79 years old) was 0.194 billion, which corresponded to 5.1 % of all disease incidence in that age range. In 2005, it is forecasted that the world population will increase to 8.0 billion and the ratio of DM to total disease incidence will increase to 6.3 %, with a disproportionate number of cases in Southeast Asia, the West Pacific, Central Asia, and North, Central, and South America. To treat Type 1 and Type 2 DM clinically, insulin preparations and synthetic drugs, respectively, have been used. However, these treatments are associated with some problems, such as several times of daily insulin injections following blood glucose monitoring and side effects in the case of the synthetic drugs. Consequently, a new class of therapeutic compounds is anticipated. After many trials, vanadium-containing complexes have been proposed to improve and treat both types of DM by in vivo experiments. We present an overview of insulinomimetic and antidiabetic vanadyl (+4 vanadium, V) complexes, and propose new candidates for dinuclear vanadyl complexes with naturally occurring ligands. The current state of research on the dinuclear vanadyl(IV)-tartrate complexes is described in regard to the physicochemical characteristics, in vitro insulinomimetic and in vivo blood-glucose-lowering effects of the prepared complexes.